RE: Atheism is irrational.
November 22, 2016 at 4:02 pm
(This post was last modified: November 22, 2016 at 4:07 pm by Simon Moon.)
(November 22, 2016 at 3:46 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(November 22, 2016 at 7:55 am)robvalue Wrote: All these arguments are really saying are:
1. Some things need a cause. [Fair enough, although you should really talk about material and efficient causes to be clear]
2. Out of the things that need causes, there can't be infinite regression. [This is just an unsupported assertion, but let's allow it]
3. So there must be something that doesn't need a cause starting the chain.
That would indeed be special pleading. Fortunately that's not close to any demonstration Aquinas gave.
For argument's sake even if you are correct concerning this not being special pleading, Aquinas' 5 ways has many other problems and flaws.
Aquinas did not 'demonstrate' anything. He came up with flawed logical arguments.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
